🎯 STRisker: Bulletin - Maryland

A Deep Dive into Your Area’s STR Updates — Helping You Navigate the Ever-Changing Rental Landscape.

Big Changes Coming for STR Taxes — But Not Until 2027

If you rent your property short-term in Maryland — or just keep an eye on local tax policies — here’s some news you’ll want to know: The state is taking over tax collection for STR platforms like Airbnb and Vrbo starting in 2028. And while that sounds far off, the groundwork is already being laid.

The legislation (SB 979 / HB 1103) aims to fix a long-standing problem. Counties depend on hotel rental tax revenue, but they often can’t collect it from STR hosts because platforms don’t share enough information. This means local governments are missing out on funds they need for services like tourism, safety, and infrastructure.

Under the new law, qualifying platforms — those making over $100,000 in annual STR bookings or handling 200+ rentals a year — will have to collect local hotel taxes and send them to the State Comptroller. From there, the funds will be redistributed to each county and city.

MACo (Maryland Association of Counties) backed the plan but insisted on important guardrails, including:

• Platforms reporting whether hosts are locally registered.
• Sharing property-level data for transparency.
• Preserving counties’ right to audit.
• Ensuring timely payments to local governments.

Lawmakers agreed and also pushed the implementation date to July 1, 2027.

Why is the delay important? It gives everyone time to:

• Build reliable data-sharing systems.
• Coordinate across jurisdictions.
• Clarify who’s responsible for enforcement.

This legislation represents a big step toward fairer, more consistent STR tax enforcement across Maryland without stripping local governments of their oversight and accountability tools.